Kids | Paper Bag Dresses and the Paper Bag Princess

We love the library. Just about every Thursday morning you can find me and my girls enjoying storytime at the library. While there, we check out a new stack of books each week. Hailey can hardly wait the 5 minute drive home before digging into the new books. She usually asks to look at one or two on the way home.

One book we have checked out a few times is The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. The Paper Bag Princess is about a princess whose castle is destroyed by a dragon. The dragon carries away her prince, who she plans to marry. Everything the princess has is burnt by the fire of the dragon, including her clothes. The only thing to survive the dragon was a paper bag. The princess makes herself a dress from the paper bag and sets off to rescue her prince from the dragon. At the end of the book, after outwitting the dragon and rescuing the prince, the prince is no longer interested in the princess, because she is a dirty mess. The princess doesn't care,  and leaves the prince, no longer intent on marrying him.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

What I like most about the story is the idea in the end that the princess knows the prince is wrong. She has a good sense of her own self worth and knows that how she looks is not an important part of who she is.

One afternoon Hailey asked me for an activity to do. We ended up making impromptu paper bag dresses, just like the Paper Bag Princess. You can too!

We started by ripping open the bottom of the bag.

After Hailey tore the bottom open, I used some scissors to cleanly cut away the paper. You should have a tube to look through after the bottom is cut open. (Yes, Keira has marker on her face. That girl loves markes, but she always makes a mess!)

Then we decorated. We used crayons, markers and stickers. I think paints or stamps would be fun too.

Hailey decided to practice writing and traced the letters on the bag.

After we decorated, the dresses were nearly ready to wear. Hailey complained that the top of the bag was digging into her arm pit, so we cut holes in the bag so it would sit more comfortably.

That's it. Easy peasy, but fun. So go grab some large paper bags, art supplies, and a copy of The Paper Bag Princess and craft away! 

Kids: Sight Word Memory

Confession: I am not very good at pretend play. I just get bored with it and have a hard time coming up with anything to contribute. I do enjoy watching and listening to Hailey imagine a whole world beyond my grown up visibility. One of the best things of Hailey getting older has been the addition of new ways to interact with her. She is now old enough to play games, and she loves it. Oh yay! I love to play games. That I can do. Even slow, easy to play, mind numbing games... I can do that. And am happy to.

Hailey has a pretty good understanding of letters and the sounds they make. She has begun sounding out words and showing some interest in reading. She isn't completely ready to read yet, but on the path to get there. In an attempt to help enlarge her interest in reading I made a memory game using sight words.

My idea is that even if she isn't in the mood to learn to read the words at the moment she will at least be able to start recognizing those words as she is exposed to written words just in the everyday things we do. For example, today at church we were singing out of the hymn book. I pointed at each of the words as we sang and she followed along. She excitedly picked up on the word is a couple of times and pointed it out to me. 

The game is played just like any other game of memory. There are 36 total cards, 18 matching sets. Flip over the cards two at a time, if they match keep them and go again. If they don't, flip them back over and it is the next person's turn.

To make things a little easier, while we're still learning to recognize each of the words, instead of turning the cards back over when they don't match we leave them flipped up. I find it can take too long the other way and she loses steam. This way the game goes a little quicker, but she is still able to pick out matches. The more we play it, the more words she will learn to recognize.

Follow the links below to download your own copy. There is one file for the fronts, another for the back. Print the fronts out on cardstock. Reload them back into your printer and print the back on them (you will need to enter in 6 copies for the back, there is only 1 page in the file.) Each printer is different on whether the already printed side goes face up or face down. On my printer, Canon MP970, it is down.

Sight Word Memory Front

Sight Word Memory Back

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Looking for more sight word games? Check out sightwords.com for more fun games to play with your beginning reader! There you will also find strategies for teaching sight words to your child and master lists of sight words, including flash cards to print out to assist in teaching your budding reader to learn how to read.

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